l6o DERBYSHIRE FONTS. 



Transitional-Norman artist and his successor of the Early 

 English period at all, so to abolish the dividing line between 

 each star and the next he made the star lie on a little pyramid, 

 i.e., he raised the centre, or meeting point of the rays, of the 

 star much above the edges. This caused each star to throw 

 a shadow which, to his mind, was far preferable, as a division, 

 to the original line of the Norman star. The rays were then 



Fig. 6. — Font at Ashbourne. 



made more natural and foliage-like (the characteristic of the 

 thirteenth century carver), and assumed the forms of petals , 

 the dog-tooth was then evolved. This dog-tooth was not an 

 exclusive ornament of the Early English period as was the 

 "ball-flower" of the succeeding "Decorated" period. Its 

 parentage was Norman, its early youth Transitional-Norman, 

 and its mature middle-age and death-bed were Early English. 



